Terms & Conditions

Terms of Service – Sytemap by HouseAfrica

Please read these Terms of Service (“Terms”), which set forth the legally binding terms and conditions between you and Systemap by HouseAfrica Investment and Properties Limited (‘the Company’ or ‘HouseAfrica’ or ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’). It governs your access to and the use of HouseAfrica’s website, mobile application and the services provided by HouseAfrica.

Our collection and use of your personal information in connection with your use of our services are described in our Privacy Policy.

Your access to use our services is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to all visitors, users, real estate developers and agents, and any other person who accesses or uses our services.

Our website is not directed at you if we are prohibited by any law of any jurisdiction from making the information on our website available to you and is not intended for any use that would be contrary to your local law or regulation.

By accessing or using our services, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms then, you may not access our services.

1. Definitions

In these Terms,

“Account”	means a unique personified account registered in the name of the User and which contains details of the User’s transactions/operations on the Platform (as defined below).
Agent	means a real estate agent who is responsible for selling the estates uploaded by the Estate Developers on the Platform.
“Applicable Laws”	means all applicable regulations, laws, codes, guidelines, policies, rules, and directives of any competent regulatory authority in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Platform”	means, collectively Sytemap by HouseAfrica’s website and other related applications provided by HouseAfrica.
“Estate Company” or “Estate Developers”	means real estate developers who have access to privately owned estates that can be purchased by buyers on the Platform.
“Service(s)”	means all products and services provided to you by HouseAfrica and as described in clause 3 of these Terms.
“User”	means persons, Agents, Estate Companies and visitors who access the Service.

 

2. Acceptance of Terms

The Service is offered subject to acceptance of all the terms and conditions contained in these Terms and all other operating rules, policies, and procedures that may be published on the Platform, which are incorporated by reference, including operating rules, policies, and procedures of third-party service providers to the Platform that are referenced herein. These Terms apply to every user of the Service. In addition, some Services offered through the Platform may be subject to additional terms and conditions adopted by the Platform. Your use of those Services is subject to those additional terms and conditions, which are incorporated into these Terms by this reference.

 

HouseAfrica reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms from time to time by posting the updated terms on the Platform. It is your responsibility to check the Terms periodically for changes. If you object to any such changes, your sole recourse will be to cease using the Platform and the Service. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the Terms will indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.

HouseAfrica reserves the right to change, suspend, or discontinue the Service (including, but not limited to, the availability of any feature, database, or content) at any time for any reason. HouseAfrica may also impose limits on certain features and Services or restrict your access to parts of or the entire Platform without notice or liability.

3. Scope of HouseAfrica’s Services
   • HouseAfrica is a technology company that operates a digital land registry for privately owned estates to help property buyers access, verify and value properties.
   • Our Services can be accessed through the Sytemap by HouseAfrica’s website.
   • Some of our Services are provided in collaboration with the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC).
   • To access our Services, a User is required to sign up on the Platform and create an account (Sytemap Account) by providing the User’s name, email, phone number and password.
   • A User can also create an Account through the agent registration link provided to the Estate Companies who are already registered as a User on the Platform. Agents who sign up directly on the Platform without the use of an agent registration link are required to select an Estate Company before proceeding with the completion of the Account set-up on the Platform. The selected Estate Company is required to approve the Agent before they can be granted access to sell the Estate Company’s estates on the Platform.
   • Estate Companies who approve Agents agree and consents that the Agents will use the Service and receive payment in accordance with these Terms.
   • A User is granted access to use the Platform and has a responsibility to ensure that no third party shall gain access to the User’s account information.
   • HouseAfrica may make access to the Platform and the Services, or certain areas or features of the Platform, subject to certain conditions or requirements, such as meeting specific eligibility criteria.
   • You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into legally binding contracts to access and use our Services. By accessing or using the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are 18 or older and have the legal capacity and authority to enter into a contract.
   • HouseAfrica does not assume any responsibility for the confirmation of any User’s identity or ownership of any property. Notwithstanding the above, for transparency and as permitted by Applicable Laws, we may ask Users to provide a form of government identification or other information or undertake additional checks designed to help verify the identities or backgrounds of the Users and their ownership of their properties.
   • You agree to strictly observe the security and authentication procedures of the Platform and you will log out from the Platform at the end of every visit.
   • When you create an account with us, you must provide us with information that is accurate, complete, and current at all times. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of these Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account on our Platform and the Service.

 

4. Personal Information
   • You agree to grant HouseAfrica an irrevocable right to collect and use any information you provide us or we collect from you, for the specific purpose of providing you with our Services.
   • You hereby agree and authorise us to verify the information provided by you to us against your information including but not limited to your phone number, date of birth, National Identification Number (I.D), or passport number, corporate documents as the case may be, the number of properties sold, and any other information that will enable us to identify you and comply with the regulatory “Know Your Customer” (KYC) requirements.
   • HouseAfrica reserves the right to request for further information from you pertaining to you or the creation of your Account at any time. Failure to provide such information within the time required by HouseAfrica may result in HouseAfrica declining to accept your request or a delay in the creation of your Account.
   • You consent that we may disclose and or transfer your information to third parties or any other entity we deem necessary to perform our obligations to you under this Agreement.
   • All other provisions regarding the use of your personal information are contained in our Privacy Policy.

 

5. Submissions

If you submit to us or post through our Services any property listing, testimonial, comment, review, suggestion, or any work of authorship (collectively a “submission”), including without limitation, submissions about any of our products or services, you agree that such submissions may be used by us in any manner. Please do not make or send any submission to us that you consider containing confidential or proprietary information. No submission sent to us shall be treated or considered as confidential information.

 

By submitting or sending a submission to us, you:

• represent and warrant to us that the submission is original to you, that no other party has any rights thereto, and that any moral rights in such submission have been waived; and
• that you grant to us a royalty-free, unrestricted, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully transferable, assignable and sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, publish, distribute, display, translate, summarise, modify and adapt such submission (in whole or in part) and or/to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, in our sole discretion, with or without your name.

 

6. Users’ Representations & Warranties

Representations and warranties are statements and promises made by you to HouseAfrica, which we rely on as being accurate in our dealings with you. You make the following representations and warranties to us at the time of agreeing to these Terms and every time you use our Services;

• you are over the age of 18 (eighteen) years;
• you are of sound mind and have the capacity to enter into a legally binding contract;
• all personal information that you provide about yourself is accurate and true to the best of your knowledge;
• all information that you provide about your company is accurate and true;
• all information that you provide about your properties is accurate and true;
• you shall not create more than one account or create an account for anyone other than yourself (with the exception of accounts created for corporate organisations); and
• you are not breaching any Applicable Laws or regulations that are applicable to you or any company, or legal entity.

7. Payment and Service Fee
   • The Service shall be provided via a flexible, affordable and automated weekly or monthly subscription payment arrangement for which you shall be required to pay the stipulated fees based on your subscription.
   • HouseAfricashall notify you of the applicable price for the Service and reserves the right to adjust its pricing where necessary.
   • You shall be required to provide some information for our payment service provider. Payments to HouseAfrica shall be made through any of the stipulated payment gateways provided on the Platform.
   • You warrant that you shall provide complete and accurate payment information.
   • By providing your credit card and other payment information accepted by our payment service provider, you are expressly agreeing that we are authorised to charge the relevant fees for your use of the Service, together with any applicable taxes.
   • Payments to HouseAfrica shall be made through a bank transfer or any of the payment gateways provided on the Platform.
   • If you disagree with any payment transaction, you can submit such complaint to within 30 (thirty) days of the payment transaction (“Dispute Period”).
   • By agreeing to these terms or continuing to operate as a User on the Platform, you agree to be bound by the service agreement between HouseAfrica and its service providers, as the same may be modified from time to time.

8. Intellectual Property
   • The Service and all rights in our product name, trade names, logos, service marks, slogans, product packaging, its original content, features and functionality are and will remain the exclusive property of HouseAfrica. Our trademarks may not be used in connection with any product or service without our prior written consent.
   • HouseAfrica may, at its sole discretion, enable Users to (i) create, upload, post, send, receive and store content, such as text, photos, audio, video, or other materials and information on or through the Platform (“User Content”); and (ii) access and view User Content and any content that HouseAfrica itself makes available on or through the Platform, including proprietary content and any content licensed or authorized for use by or through HouseAfrica from a third party (“HouseAfrica’s Content” and together with User Content, “Collective Content”).
   • You will not use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works of, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, broadcast or otherwise exploit the Platform or Collective Content, except to the extent that you are the legal owner of certain User Content or as expressly permitted in these Terms. No licenses or rights are granted to you by implication or otherwise under any intellectual property rights owned or controlled by HouseAfrica or its licensors, except for the licenses and rights expressly granted in these Terms.
   • Subject to your compliance with these Terms, HouseAfrica grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, revocable, non-transferable license to access and view any Collective Content made available on or through the Platform and accessible to you, solely for your personal and non-commercial use.
   • Users shall not directly or indirectly: (i) decipher, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive any source code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Service, except to the extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction; (ii) modify, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of any part of the Service; or (iii) copy, rent, lease, distribute, or otherwise transfer any of the rights that you receive hereunder.

 

9. Terms Specific to Estate Companies
   • To access our Service as an Estate Company, you are required to book a demo with HouseAfrica on the Sytemap by HouseAfrica’s website to create an account. We will require your name, email address and phone number.
   • After onboarding, HouseAfrica will verify the information you provided as part of our Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedure.
   • Subject to the approval of the information provided by you during the onboarding, you will be granted access to use our Service. Onboarded Estate Companies will also be granted an agent registration link that can be used to onboard Agents on the Platform.
   • Estate Companies who onboard Agents through the agent registration link provided will be responsible for verifying and approving Agents to be onboarded on the Platform.
   • Agents who are desirous of accessing the Platform will be required to provide certain information to the Estate Companies including their referrals, the number of properties sold, their registration date with the relevant authorities, recent transactions and the total number of properties previously sold, and any other information that may be required to verify the identity of an Agent. Agents who do not meet the required experience and qualifications will be denied access to sell the Estate Company’s estates on the Platform.
   • As an Estate Company, you understand that Agents who sign up directly on the Platform without the use of an agent registration link are required to select an Estate Company before proceeding with the completion of the Account set-up on the Platform. If you are selected as an Estate Company by an Agent, you will be required to approve the Agent before they can be granted access to the Platform. Estate Company who approve Agents agree and consent that the Agents will use the Service and receive payment in accordance with these Terms.
   • As an Estate Company, you also understand and agree that you are responsible for the Agents onboarded on the Platform to sell your estates through your unique agent registration link and you have the ability to suspend any Agent from the Platform if they are suspected of any malicious act that could jeopardise your reputation and access to the Platform. When an Agent is suspended, they will no longer have access to the Estate Company’s estate.
   • You agree to not use the Platform or Service to perform any transaction that is connected to any illegal activity including but not limited to money laundering, fraud and the funding of terrorist organisations. If we reasonably believe that you are using our Service or Platform in connection with any illegal activity or for any fraudulent purpose, or are permitting a third party to do so, we will terminate your Account and report you to the appropriate legal authorities.

10. Terms Specific to Agents
    • To access our Service as an Agent, you are required to create an account, known as an Agent Account, by providing us with your email address, phone number, Bank Verification Number, National Identification Number (I.D), or Passport Number, your experience as an agent, and the number of properties sold.
    • Agents who sign up directly on the Platform without the use of an agent registration link are required to select an Estate Developer before proceeding with the completion of the Agent Account set-up on the Platform. The selected Estate Developer has the right to approve the Agent before they can be granted access to the Platform.
    • Agents who are onboarded on the Platform through an agent registration link will receive an email confirmation and a code required to complete their onboarding on the Platform. They will also be required to provide their personal and payment information to complete their onboarding to the Platform.
    • The Agent shall use the Platform and Service in accordance with applicable laws, these Terms, our Privacy Policy and any other agreement with HouseAfrica.

11. Prohibited Activities
    • You shall not use the Platform for any purpose that is prohibited by these Terms. You are responsible for all of your activity in connection with the Service. Violation of our rules may result in the termination and cancellation of your Account. You acknowledge and agree that we may terminate any HouseAfrica Account at any time for any reason (including, but not limited to, our independent assessment or the receipt of claims or allegations from third parties or authorities).
    • Users shall not utilise the Platform or the Services for any illegal purpose.
    • You are solely responsible for compliance with any and all laws, rules, regulations, and tax obligations that may apply to your use of the Services. In connection with your use of the Platform, you will not and will not assist or enable others to:

• breach or circumvent any applicable laws or regulations, agreements with third-parties, third-party rights, or our Terms;
• use the Platform or any content therein for any commercial or other purposes that are not expressly permitted by these Terms or in a manner that falsely implies endorsement, partnership or otherwise misleads others as to your affiliation with HouseAfrica;
• copy, store or otherwise access or use any information, including personally identifiable information about any other User, contained on the Platform in any way that is inconsistent with HouseAfrica’s Privacy Policy or these Terms or that otherwise violates the privacy rights of Users or third parties;
• use the Platform in connection with the distribution of unsolicited commercial messages (“spam”);
• offer as a trader;
• use the Platform with the intention to circumvent any subscription fees or for any other reason;
• request, accept or make any payment for orders outside of the Platform. If you do so, you acknowledge and agree that you: (i) would be in breach of these Terms; (ii) accept all risks and responsibility for such payment, and (iii) hold HouseAfrica harmless from any liability for such payment;
• discriminate against or harass anyone on the basis of race, tribe, origin, religion, gender, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or age, or otherwise engage in any abusive or disruptive behaviour;
• use, display, mirror or frame the Platform or Collective Content, or any individual element within the Platform, HouseAfrica’s name, any trademark, logo or other proprietary information belonging to HouseAfrica, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page in the Platform, without HouseAfrica’s express written consent;
• dilute, tarnish or otherwise harm HouseAfrica’s brand in any way, including through unauthorised use of Collective Content, registering and/or using derivative terms in domain names, trade names, trademarks or other source identifiers, or registering and/or using domains names, trade names, trademarks or other source identifiers that closely imitate or are confusingly similar to HouseAfrica’s domains, trademarks, taglines, promotional campaigns or Collective Content;
• use any robots, spider, crawler, scraper or other automated means or processes to access, collect data or other content from or otherwise interact with the Platform for any purpose;
• avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble, or otherwise attempt to circumvent any technological measure implemented by HouseAfrica or any of HouseAfrica’s providers or any other third party to protect the Platform;
• attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the Platform;
• take any action that damages or adversely affects, or could damage or adversely affect the performance or proper functioning of the Platform;
• violate or infringe anyone else’s rights or otherwise cause harm to anyone.
  • You acknowledge that HouseAfrica has no obligation to monitor the access to or use of the Platform by any User or to review, disable access to, or edit any User Content, but has the right to do so to (i) operate, secure and improve the Platform (including without limitation for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation and customer support purposes); (ii) ensure Users’ compliance with these Terms; (iii) comply with applicable law or the order or requirement of a court, law enforcement or other administrative agency or governmental body; (iv) respond to User Content that it determines is harmful or objectionable; or (v) as otherwise set forth in these Terms. Users agree to cooperate with and assist HouseAfrica in good faith, and to provide HouseAfrica with such information and take such actions as may be reasonably requested by HouseAfrica with respect to any investigation undertaken by HouseAfrica or a representative of HouseAfrica regarding the use or abuse of the Platform.

 

12. Your Responsibilities
    • You are responsible for checking, confirming and satisfying yourself as to the accuracy of any property documents and information provided on our Platform.
    • You are responsible for updating the Platform based on the available estates that can be purchased by buyers.
    • You are responsible for ensuring that you act in good faith towards other parties.

 

13. Links to Other Websites
    • The Platform may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by HouseAfrica.
    • HouseAfrica has no control over and assumes no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that HouseAfrica shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such websites or services. We strongly advise you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of any third-party websites or services that you visit.

 

14. Termination
    • We may terminate or suspend our Service to you immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach these Terms.
    • Upon termination, your right to use the Platform and our Service will immediately cease. If you wish to terminate your account, you may simply send an email to

 

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless HouseAfrica, its affiliates and subsidiaries, its officers, directors, employees and agents, against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including any direct, indirect or consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of reputation and all interest penalties and legal and other reasonable professional costs and expenses) suffered or incurred as a result of:

• your fraudulent or illegal use of the Services or the Platform;
• your negligence or any default by you of any of these Terms;
• any inaccurate or incomplete information that you have knowingly provided to us;
• you allowing any other person to access your account either with your permission or as a result of your failure to keep your username and password private;
• any claim made against you for actual or alleged infringement of HouseAfrica’s Intellectual Property or any actual or alleged infringement of a third party’s Intellectual Property arising out of or in connection with our Services or your use of the Platform.

 

16. Limitation of Liability

In no event shall HouseAfrica, its directors, employees, partners, agents, suppliers, or affiliates, be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, including without limitation, loss of profits, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from:

• your use of the Platform or the Services or your inability to use the Platform or the Services;
• any conduct or content of any third party on the Platform;
• any unauthorised access, use or alteration of your transmissions or content, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence) or any other legal theory, whether or not we have been informed of the possibility of such damage, and even if a remedy set forth herein is found to have failed of its essential purpose;
• any legal proceedings between the you and any third parties.

 

17. Disclaimer
    • Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Platform is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. The Platform is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or course of performance.
    • HouseAfrica, its subsidiaries, affiliates, and its licensors do not warrant that a) the Platform will function uninterrupted, secure or available at any particular time or location; b) any errors or defects will be corrected; c) the Platform is free of viruses or other harmful components; or d) the results of using the Platform will meet your requirements.
    • HouseAfrica shall never assign or send an agent to you without notifying you via email or telephone. You are to confirm from HouseAfrica that any agent that is assigned or sent to you is from HouseAfrica.

 

18. Governing Law
    • These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.
    • Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between us regarding our Service, and supersede and replace any prior agreements we might have between us regarding the Service.

 

19. Dispute Resolution
    • Any disputes arising under or in connection with the validity, interpretation and performance of this Terms between you and HouseAfrica or between HouseAfrica and any third party that cannot be resolved amicably by the parties through negotiation within 30 (thirty) days shall be resolved by Arbitration at the Lagos Court of Arbitration (LCA) before a single arbitrator in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, Cap A18, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
    • The Parties shall endeavour in good faith to mutually agree on the selection of an arbitrator. If the Parties cannot mutually agree on the selection of an arbitrator within ten (10) days of the request, they shall apply to the LCA to appoint an arbitrator. Arbitration proceedings shall be conducted in Lagos. The arbitrator will be requested to render an award within ninety (90) days and to provide, in writing the reasoning for the award. The decision of any such arbitrator shall be final and binding on the parties.
    • Each party shall bear its cost in connection with the Arbitration and the arbitrator’s fees shall be split equally between both parties.

 

20. Force Majeure

HouseAfrica shall not be liable for failure to perform, or for delay in performing its obligations hereunder if such failure or delay shall be due to natural disasters, war, riot, civil commotion, weather, pandemics, epidemics, labour disputes, failure of sub-contractors or any other cause beyond its reasonable control and whether or not of a similar nature to the foregoing.

 

21. Feedback

We welcome and encourage you to provide feedback, comments and suggestions for improvements to HouseAfrica’s Platform or Services. You may submit your feedback by emailing us at . Any feedback you submit to us will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary to you. By submitting your feedback to us, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use and publish those ideas and materials for any purpose, without compensation to you.

 

22. Changes to Terms & Conditions

HouseAfrica reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change the Terms of Service. HouseAfrica reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change these Terms of Service. In the event of changes, we will provide you with reasonable notice via e-mail (to registered Users) and pop-up messages displayed on the Platforms in advance of the effective date of the update.

 

23. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at .

This document was last updated in [Please Insert Month]2023.